
THE 

GETTYSBURG 

ADDRESS 




THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 



\ x 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



As he appeared in 1860 at the time of his election to 
the presidency. 



AN ANALYSIS 



GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 

COMPILED BY 

JOSEPH B. OAKLEAF 
r. 



MOLINE, ILLINOIS 
DESAULNIERS & CO., PRINTERS 

1908 



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(Perils 

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AM offering this little book- 
let to those who are inter- 
ested in matters concerning 
Lincoln, as a souvenir of 
the Ninety-ninth Anniversary of the 
birthday of Abraham Lincoln. 

Much has been said and written 
about the address which Mr. Lincoln 
delivered at Gettysburg and some 
wrong statements have been made as 
to how, where and when it was pre- 
pared but by following the sugges- 
tions I have made herein the student 
can learn the facts. 

1 am indebted to Rev. Frederick 
Gotwald, of York, Pennsylvania, for 
the cuts which appear herein ; they 
were used by the Board of Education 
of the General Synod of the Evangel- 
ical Lutheran Church in a pamphlet 
entitled " Gettysburg, Lincoln's 
Address and Our Educational In- 
stitution." 

Joseph B. Oakleaf. 



Moline, Illinois 
February 12, 1908 




THE WILLS HOUSE 



Southeast corner of Square and York street. Presi- 
dent Lincoln was the guest of Judge Wills from 
November 18 to November 19, 1863, occupying the 
second-story room just over the Judge's office, facing 
the Square. This photograph was taken soon after 
this, and shows Judge Wills standing on his porch. 




PRESIDENT LINCOLN 

As he appeared when address was 
delivered. 




E find the Gettysburg address of 
Abraham Lincoln in the text- 
books of our schools as a model 
of good Enghsh, and it ought to 
be an incentive to the young men 
of our country, who have not the means to 
secure a high school or college education, 
that they can accomplish much by applying 
themselves properly and making proper use 
of their time, for Abraham Lincoln was self- 
taught, self-made, and the address delivered 
at Gettysburg has no peer in the English 
language. Some term it an oration but it 
was not so intended. It is true that it has 
all the elements of a classic oration, but, 
being brief, it was intended for, and should 
be termed an address. 



The committee who had charge of the 
arrangements of the dedicatory ceremonies of 
the Gettysburg cemetery, desired the presi- 
dent to be present, and the invitation by 
Judge David Wills, a resident of Gettysburg, 
was as follows: "It is the desire that after 
the oration, you as chief executive of the 
nation, formally set apart these grounds to 
their sacred use by a few appropriate remarks. 
It will be a source of great gratification to 
the many widows and orphans that have been 
made almost friendless by the great battle 
here, to have you here personally; and it will 
kindle anew in the breasts of the comrades 
of these brave dead, who are now in the 
tented field or nobly meeting the foe in the 
front, a confidence that they who sleep in 
death on the battle-field are not forgotten by 
those highest in authority; and they will feel 
that, should their fate be the same, their 
remains will not be uncared for. We hope 
you will be able to be present to perform this 
last solemn act to the soldier dead on this 
battle-field." 

Mr. Lincoln, knowing that Mr. Everett 
would deliver the oration on the occasion, 
did not intend to take the time to go over 
the ground that Mr. Everett would naturally 
cover. 



Much has been said and written as to 
how, where and when the address was pre- 
pared. Mr. Lincoln always prepared the 
remarks that he expected to make with much 
care and thought and no occasion was too 
simple for him to give the matter of his 
remarks sufficient forethought if he knew 
beforehand that he would be expected to 
speak and he did not depart from his usual 
and excellent custom in this case. He knew 
that it would be a representative gathering 
and he certainly expected that what he would 
say would become history but he did not 
expect, nor could he dream, that his address 
would be adopted by the educational institu- 
tions of his country as a model of good 
English. The first part of the address was 
written at Washington and finished at his 
room in the home of Judge Wills, whose 
guest he was during his stay at Gettysburg. 
After having prepared the address and being 
satisfied with it, he sent it to Mr. Seward, 
who was present at Gettysburg as a guest, 
for his approval. Mr. Seward was the scholar 
of the cabinet yet he could not overrule the 
president if the president once made up his 
mind that what he had said or written was 
what he intended should be given to the 
people or become a part of the records. 



Mr. Nicolay says that there are three ver- 
sions of authority for Lincoln's Gettysburg 
address: 

First — The original autograph manu- 
script draft, written by Mr. Lincoln, partly at 
Washington and partly at Gettysburg. 

Second — The version made by the short- 
hand reporter on the stand at Gettysburg, 
when the president delivered it, which was 
telegraphed and was printed in the leading 
newspapers of the country on the following 
morning. 

Third — The revised copy made by the 
president a few days after his return to 
Washington, upon a careful comparison of 
his original draft, and the printed newspaper 
version, with his own recollections of the 
exact form in which he delivered it. 

But the following is the one that has been 
approved by Mr. Lincoln himself: 

"Four score and seven years ago our 
fathers brought forth upon this continent a 
new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedi- 
cated to the proposition that all men are 
created equal. 

"Now we are engaged in a great civil 
war, testing whether that nation, or any 
nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can 
long endure. We are met on a great battle- 
field of that war. We are met to dedicate a 



Portion of it as the final resting place of 
those who here gave their lives that that 
nation might live. It is altogether fitting 
and proper that we should do this. 

"But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedi- 
cate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot 
hallow this ground. The brave men, living 
and dead, who struggled here, have conse- 
crated it far above our Power to add or 
detract. The world will little note, nor 
long remember, what we say here, but it 
can never forget what they did here. It is 
for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here 
to the unfinished work that they have thus 
far so nobly carried on. It is rather for us 
to be here dedicated to the great task re- 
maining before us, — that from these honored 
dead we take increased devotion to the cause 
for which they gave the last full measure of 
devotion, — that we here highly resolve that 
the dead shall not have died in vain; that 
the nation shall, under God, have a new 
birth of freedom, and that the government 
of the people, by the people, and for the 
People, shall not perish from the earth. " 

It would be well for the student, or any- 
one who takes an interest in matters concern- 
ing Lincoln, to read "Lincoln at Gettysburg" 
by Clark E. Carr, and " Gettysburg and 



Lincoln" by Henry Sweetser Burrage, and 
also the article by Mr. Nicolay which appears 
in the February 1894 number of the Century 
Magazine. The two books mentioned above 
should be read by all for there is much food 
for thought within their covers. 

Anyone reading the immortal address of 
Abraham Lincoln for the first time is 
astounded at the simplicity of the language 
and yet so much said. Samuel H. Kerfoot, 
Jr., a member of the executive committee of 
the Chicago Historical Society, has made a 
study of the address and the following analysis 
is the result : 

" The oration contains 266 words — 1150 
letters. 

"There are 193 words of one syllable each. 

"There are 48 words of two syllables each. 

"There are 17 words of three syllables each. 

"There are 8 words of four syllables each. 

"Two of the disyllabics contain but three 
letters each. 

"Seven of the disyllabics contain but five 
letters each. 

"Three of the trisyllabics contain but seven 
letters each. 

"Four of the quadrisyllabics are 'conse- 
crated', 'altogether', 'proposition' and 'unfin- 
ished.' 'Dedicated' used four times making 
up a total of eight quadrisyllables. 



"The quadrisyllables average less than ten 
letters each. 

"The entire 266 words average less than 
five letters each. 

"The words 'The world will little note, 
nor long remember, what we say here' are a 
proof of the modesty of Lincoln. The speech 
is known wherever the English tongue is 
spoken." 

Mr. Carr, in his excellent little volume, 
offers the following analysis of the Gettysburg 
address: 

"Short as is Mr. Lincoln's Gettysburg ad- 
dress, it contains all the elements of an elab- 
orate and finished oration, — exordium, argu- 
ment, climax and peroration. While each of 
these divisions is far more extended in Mr. 
Everett's oration, they are not more marked 
than in Mr. Lincoln's. 

"In his exordium, consisting of five simple 
sentences, each one of which recalls a fact 
apparent to every hearer, he lays foundations 
for the superstructure upon which he builds, 
broad and deep. 

" 'Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers 
brought forth upon this continent a new 
nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to 
the proposition that all men are created 
equal. 

'Now we are engaged in a great civil war, 
testing whether that nation, or any nation, 
so conceived and so dedicated, can long 
endure. We are met on a great battlefield 



of that war. We are met to dedicate a por- 
tion of it as the final resting place of those 
who here gave their lives that that nation 
might live. It is altogether fitting and proper 
that we should do this.' 

"After thus laying the foundation, he states 
the argument: 

" 'But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate 
— we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow 
this ground. The brave men, living and 
dead, who struggled here have consecrated it 
far above our power to add or detract. The 
world will little note, nor long remember, 
what we say here, but it can never forget 
what they did here. It is for us, the living, 
rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished 
work that they have thus far so nobly carried 
on.' 

"And, to make the argument stronger, to 
clinch it, as we would say, he repeats: 

" 'It is rather for us to be dedicated here to 
the great task remaining before us, — that from 
these honored dead we take increased devo- 
tion to the cause for which they gave the last 
full measure of devotion.' 

"And then follows the climax: 

" 'That we here highly resolve that the dead 
shall not have died in vain.' 

"And then the peroration: 

'That the nation shall, under God, 
have a new birth of freedom; and that the 
government of the people, by the people, 
and for the people, shall not perish from 
the earth.' 



C. W. Foss, Ph. D., of Augustana College, 
Rock Island, Illinois, in a lecture to his class, 
on the Gettysburg address said: 

"It was said of a painting of Polyxena by 
Polygnotus that 'She carried in her eyelids 
the whole history of the Trojan war.' And, 
indeed, it may be possible for a great artist 
or thinker to compress the picture of a whole 
age into a mere point. Thus did Lincoln in 
his memorable Gettysburg address concen- 
trate into a few sentences a whole century of 
our nation's history. For what the United 
States was to contribute to mankind and to 
civilization during the first century of its 
existence Lincoln has here set forth with a 
comprehensiveness, a depth, and a simplicity 
which challenges the admiration of the whole 
thinking world. 

"The origin, the principles and the purposes 
of our government are first set forth. These 
principles were entirely new in the history of 
government, and the attempt to put them 
into operation was to a great extent an ex- 
periment. In the course of a few score 
years these principles were put to a severe 
test. A great world contest was fought out. 
The question at issue was whether a 'gov- 
ernment of the people, by the people, and for 
the people' could long maintain itself. Not 
only we of the north and our brethren of the 
south were interested in the issue of that 
contest, but, indeed the whole world, and 
races and nations yet unborn. As the issue 
was so momentous no sacrifices could be too 



ruiiAAni wr OUINUntib 



013 425 266 2 



great, and the nation poured forth its best 
blood upon the sacred altars of its many 
battlefields. The honored dead had already 
consecrated their final resting places, and 
Lincoln called upon thelivingtodedicatethem- 
selves to the great work, that the nation might 
be preserved and that the principles and bless- 
ings of liberty might not be lost to the world. 
"In this brief address, Lincoln has given us 
an epitome of our history and presented the 
important facts of its two chief periods — the 
formation of our nation and government and 
the preservation of the same — the period of 
Washington and that of Lincoln himself." 

The Gettysburg address will be read by 
each succeeding generation to the end of 
time and its beauty will increase from year to 
year and stand as a shining mark to the 
memory of the "First American." 




MONUMENT IN NATIONAL CEMETERY 

Stands where Lincoln delivered his address. The 
closing part of address is carved on face of monument. 



?.TA C' 



